This invention relates to catheters for in vivo insertion into a living body and particularly those used for insertion into the cardiovascular system for cardiac monitoring and therapy.
Many catheters require an atraumatic, but constant, tissue contact, for example, electrophysiology catheters. However, existing catheters have either been soft and atraumatic but sacrifice the ability to provide constant tissue contact, or, on the other hand, provide good tissue contact but are rigid and, thus, increase the risk of tissue perforations. A need has, thus, existed for catheters having the ability to provide a firm constant contact with tissues such as cardiac tissues without risk of perforation of the tissue.